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Published Friday October 2nd, 2009 at 6:44pm

Behind the glamour of adoption, new beginnings and happy reunions,
there is another, darker side of loss and separation for birth mothers,
birth families, and adoptees that is often left out of the discussion.
Popular culture mostly fails to take up the issue from the perspective
of the birth mother. What factors forced the decision to give up her
child? Were there other options? How has she coped since?

Filmmaker Tammy Chu asks those questions, but also considers
the feeling of separation from the side of the adoptee and the
sometimes life-long journey to find identity and belonging.

Chu, an adoptee herself, says these children are an undocumented and
invisible diaspora that don't fall into the usual category of
immigrants or migrants.

According to the Global Overseas Adoptees' Link, an adoptee-founded and
run NGO, upwards of 200,000 children have been adopted internationally
from Korea since the 1950s. But a more conservative estimate from the
Korean Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family in 2002 put the number at
148,394. The ministry said that between 1995 and 2005, 78,000 came back
to Korea to search for their families, accounting for 63 percent of the
children who have been adopted abroad. Yet of those who have attempted
to find their birth families, only 2.7 percent have been successful.

Korea's international adoption program continues, and according to
government figures, 1,264 children were adopted from Korea in 2008.

"But it hasn't been talked about because I think that adoptees have
just begun to speak out in the last few years about their experiences,"
she said. The media tend to leave out the fact that many adoptees are
not actually orphans when they are adopted, and that they do have birth
families somewhere. Chu believes that the Korean society as a whole has
a collective sense of guilt for having sent so many children abroad.

"And I think that there hasn't been enough done to tell these stories.
Generally a lot of TV shows are about reunions - they don't talk enough
about the underlying causes and problems that force so many women to
give up their children - like the lack of social welfare, and women's
rights that forces unwed mothers to give up their children," said Chu.

The filmmaker's second documentary, "Resilience," is an attempt to fill
this void. The documentary will premiere at the Pusan International
Film Festival next week.

In the interviews she conducted for the movie, Chu said that
mothers "had an immense sense of loss and regret and spoke non-stop
about their children (that had been adopted abroad)."

The film has been a long time coming.

Rev. Kim Do-hyun, the director of KoRoot, an organization that helps
support adoptees returning to Korea, first approached Chu to make the
film in 2005 because he wanted to "make a short film about Korean birth
mothers and the patriarchy that affected their lives and eventually
forced them to give up their children." Chu said she felt compelled by
Kim's proposal because she thought the story of birth mothers' had not
yet been told.

Chu began doing research for the project in 2005 by interviewing social
workers, adoption agencies, single mothers' organizations, government
officials, including two former ministers of Health and Welfare, and
birth mothers. She initially made contact with over 30 different birth
mothers, interviewed six and planned to include three in her
documentary. She said that the unifying thread between all the mothers
is the devastating impact it has had on their lives.

It was during these interviews that she realized that the project had
transformed into a feature length film, rather than the short
documentary that Kim and Chu had originally envisioned. As filming
continued, the movie also evolved from three stories into one. In
particular, the film focuses on one birth mother, Noh Myunga, and her
son, Brent Beesley.

In the winter of 1977 Noh had left her son with relatives while
she left to find work. But when she returned, she found that her family
had given him up for adoption. Several family members made the decision
for her, she said, not thinking about the long-term consequences of
what it's like for a woman to lose her child.

Chu felt their story would be particularly compelling for viewers and
that the film would best be served by focusing on one story in more
intimate detail.

Beesley, now 32, said his participation in the film allowed him to recover the long-lost bond with his birth mother.

"I am so thankful I got to be part of the movie ... it give me a chance
to know a little bit more about my mom," said Beesley. "I hope this
movie will bring some more attention to international adoption. There
are so many things that can improve the whole process, and maybe this
can be that little push to send things in the right direction."

Chu said she intends to include the other two stories in an educational
supplement to the documentary that she is currently making.

Chu also hopes to eventually release "Resilience" internationally, but
"felt like Busan was very fitting for the premiere, (since) it's
premiering not only in front of a Korean audience, but also a lot of
the adoptee community in Korea will be able to see it."

The 14th Annual Pusan International Film Festival will be held this
year from Oct. 8-16. The festival was first held in 1996 and has since
established itself as Asia's largest annual film industry event, often
referred to as "the Cannes of Asia" in foreign media. At the Sept. 8
Seoul press conference, it was announced that this year's festival
would screen 355 hand-selected films from 70 different countries, a
record for the festival. With 13,740 seats and 36 screens at six
theaters, the audience is projected to surpass 10,000 viewers from 55
countries. The festival will also be showing a record 144 world and
international premieres.

"Resilience" was selected by PIFF to receive funding from the 2008
Asian Cinema Fund, selected under its Asian Network Documentary
category, a true testament to the film, considering the honor is
typically only given to Korean or Asian filmmakers.

Chu, an American, considered it a victory that the selection committee
decided to recognize and award her as a Korean filmmaker. "As a
Korean-American filmmaker, it's hard to get funding because they
usually only support films by Korean directors."

"There should be more support for films by (overseas Koreans) because
we also have an important voice in the Korean identity and experience.
The Korean identity has expanded so art and funding should reflect that
new plurality," she added.

Chu, who has lived in Korea since 2001, studied cinema and photography
at Ithaca College. She made her first documentary in 1998, "Searching
for Go-Hyang," or "Searching for a homeland," a personal account of
finding her birth family. It was screened at international film
festivals and conferences, as well as broadcast on PBS in the United
States and on Korean television sets via EBS.

For their part, Chu says the adoptee community has been particularly
generous and supportive of the project. The film recently held an
online fundraising drive to help raise post-production costs and
surpassed their goal of $10,000. Chu said she was overwhelmed by the
way people in the community reached into their own pockets to support
the film. The response exceeded her expectations.

It has taken the support of many groups to see the fledgling project to
fruition. The documentary is being produced by KoRoot, co-produced by
Nameless Films Collaborative, and supported by GOA'L, an
adoptee-founded and run NGO in Seoul. The documentary's fiscal sponsor
is Women Make Movies, the oldest and most established distributor of
films made by and about women.

"Resilience" has become a passion for Chu. She has been working on the
film since 2005 and has often self-funded filming costs, all while
working in Korea to allow her to make the movie. Other collaborators,
like editor and co-producer Anthony Gilmore, have given their talent
and time because of their belief in the film. Full-length documentaries
typically cost over $100,000 to produce, but her crew has managed with
nearly half that.

"It's been a pretty large struggle, but that's independent filmmaking.
It's worth it when you can make a story that people will be impacted
by."

Chu says that in the end, she wants viewers to think more critically
about international adoption, how it affects people, especially birth
mothers and the 97.3 percent of adoptees that cannot track down their
birth parents.

"Resilience" is currently still in post production and Chu's future
plans for the educational supplement DVD and international distribution
will require additional funding. If you'd like to donate to the film,
or for more information, visit the official website at
www.resiliencefilm.com